Danny Foster, 41, had been on the lam since December 1996, when he escaped from jail after being convicted on assault charges for shooting former girlfriend Inita Berry (now Paige) in the back multiple times in November 1995, while she was holding the couple's 18-month-old son, Reuben. Berry and Reuben Foster were both injured in the gunfire. Danny Foster was serving a minimum 30-year sentence, the report said.

Reuben Foster made like Nick Saban when signing his Letter of Intent. Foster's father was arrested Friday after 16 years on the run. (AP Photo)

Steps to apprehend Foster began last summer, when the Roanoke (Ala.) Police Department began working with the U.S. Marshal's office in Florida, where Foster was using the name of Jefferson Tyrone McClendon, The Randolph Leader reported. Foster had been jailed in Florida under false names, the report said, but his true identity was never discovered.

U.S. Marshals said that Foster at first denied his identity until fingerprints gave him away, al.com reported.

"Foster had been on the run for a while now, and this investigation to apprehend him is an example of what can result when tenacious investigators from different agencies work together to get a violent offender behind bars,'' U.S. Marshal Arthur Baylor of Alabama's Middle District, said in a prepared statement, per multiple media reports.